Prithvi, Talking about ethicality is altogether a debatable topic and I would not want to go too deep in to it. However, to make my stand clear and since you are asking me a question let me write down my personal thought as briefly as possible.
1. I believe every artist/photographer has his/her own yard sticks of ethics and ideologies. I respect everybody's yard stick. Some are documentary photographers, some are aspiring artists, some are visual artists and some are digital artists. At the end of the day, it is still art for the artist who created it.
2. My ideology is - I don't add/remove anything from the scene and I don't clone. It is based on the thought that I was and am not the "creator" and am not that powerful enough to create nature/natural elements. Am here to click what nature has already created

. I must also confess that am very poor at post processing too ( though it is an essential part of (digital) nature photography! )
Coming to this photograph - the inclusion of the plant was intentional and indeed the porous leaves are not in my control, but I felt it looked natural than the *ideal* scenario.
Thanks all for your views!